It is now well accepted that the role of newly developed drugs used in the clinical management of patients needs to be evaluated in properly designed randomised clinical trials. In 1980, the Interuniversity Cardiology Institute of the Netherlands initiated the Holland Interuniversity Nifedipine/metoprolol Trial (HINT). The objective of this randomised, doubleblind, multicentre trial was to evaluate the effectiveness of nifedipine (a calcium antagonist) and metoprolol (a beta blocker) in preventing recurrence of ischaemia or progression to myocardial infarction in patients suspected of having unstable angina at hospital admission, a topic which at that time had not been well investigated. The trial was designed to follow cardiologic practice as closely as possible. In particular, patients were entered as soon as unstable angina was suspected at hospital admission, without waiting for enzyme assessments to exclude evolving myocardial infarction. The first patient was enrolled on 1 February 1981. On 30 October 1984 patient enrolment was discontinued because an interim analysis suggested that the risk of myocardial infarction was higher in patients assigned to nifedipine than in patients treated with the other trial medications. The main findings have been published previously[11• This supplement of the European Heart Journal provides a more detailed report.